1.5/5 stars

One of the strangest trends in entertainment is this recent obsession with true crime stories. It seems every other month, Netflix releases a new film or miniseries delving into the life of some killer or sensational crime. And now Anna Kendrick tries her hand at the phenomenon with her directorial debut Woman of the Hour. The film tries to be both a haunting true crime story and a light-hearted tale of feminist empowerment, making the tone shockingly jarring.

In 1978, aspiring actor Sheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick) was offered a guest spot on The Dating Game. She must ask questions to three men who she can’t see and based on their answers, decide which one she would like to go on a date with. One of those men was Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) who, a year later, was revealed to be a serial killer.

Kendrick tells the story out of order, framing it with The Dating Game juxtaposed with Alcala’s crimes committed before and after the show. So on one side we have a harrowing story of the ways the system has failed women and allows a killer like Alcala to go unpunished for so long. In between these scenes of real violence against real women we have a comedic tale full of witty “girlboss” retorts and applause lines. The result is a tonal inconsistency bordering on offensively tasteless.

The story of a killer appearing on a game show is fascinating but there isn’t enough to maintain interest even in a film this short. Kendrick gives us occasional directorial flourishes (the scene where Sheryl finally meets Rodney is absolutely chilling) but it’s too little too late. There is a compelling story buried somewhere in this cartoonish spectacle, but it won’t be found here. Woman of the Hour is now available on Netflix. 

Directed by Anna Kendrick // Written by Ian McDonald //Starring Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Autumn Best, Pete Holmes, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakle, Matt Visser, Jedidiah Goodacre, Rob Morton, Dylan Schmid, and Tony Hale // Netflix // 95 minutes // Rated R

When Beyoncé took the prize for best dance/electronic album at the Grammy Awards last year with “Renaissance,” the pop superstar became the winningest artist in the nearly seven-decade history of music’s most prestigious awards show.

Now she’s history’s most-nominated act as well.

As announced Friday morning by the Recording Academy, Beyoncé leads nominations for the 67th Grammys with 11 nods, including in top categories such as album of the year (for her sprawling roots-music excursion “Cowboy Carter”) and record and song of the year (for her chart-topping “Texas Hold ’Em”). The 11 new nominations bring her career total to 99 and leave Beyoncé’s husband — rapper Jay-Z, with whom she’d been tied at 88 — as the person with the second-most nominations. (Beyoncé has won 32 Grammys.)

Among her other nods for work from “Cowboy Carter” are country solo performance (“16 Carriages”), Americana performance (“Ya Ya”) and melodic rap performance (“Spaghettii”) — one indication of the stylistic breadth of an artist whose nominations with “Renaissance” came largely in the dance and R&B genres.

Beyoncé is just one of several established Grammy favorites competing for top prizes at next year’s edition of the annual ceremony, which will take place Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift, whose album of the year win with “Midnights” at February’s show made her the first artist to take the Grammys’ flagship prize four times, is up for album again with “The Tortured Poets Department” and for record and song of the year with “Fortnight,” her moody electro-pop duet with Post Malone. Billie Eilish also scored a nod for the album award with “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” making her the first artist to be nominated for the Grammys’ equivalent of best picture with her first three LPs; she’s up for record and song of the year too with her single “Birds of a Feather.”

But in a year long on fresh talent, Grammy voters also showered nominations on several of the upstart pop acts who’ve dominated concert stages, streaming platforms and social-media feeds in 2024. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter will vie for album, record and song of the year and best new artist in each woman’s first trip to the Grammys — Roan with her album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and her single “Good Luck, Babe!” and Carpenter with her album “Short n’ Sweet” and her single “Espresso” for the record prize and “Please Please Please” for the song prize. (Record of the year goes to performers and producers, while song of the year recognizes songwriters.)

Charli XCX, the pop singer and songwriter from England with a long history of underground acclaim, has seven nominations — including album of the year and record of the year — with her “Brat” LP and “360” single, which elevated her to a new level of mainstream renown. Eilish also earned seven nods overall, as did Malone and Kendrick Lamar, the Compton-born rapper whose Drake diss track “Not Like Us” is up for record and song of the year; other acts with multiple nominations include Roan, Carpenter and Swift, each of whom got six.

In an interview, Recording Academy Chief Executive Harvey Mason Jr. said the nominations reflect the group’s effort to modernize and diversify its electorate after years in which the academy was criticized for overvaluing the work of older white men.

“It feels very representative of what’s going on in music,” said Mason, who pointed out that two-thirds of the academy’s more than 13,000 voting members had joined the organization since 2019.

Yet as always with the Grammys, the major categories include some unexpected choices — albeit ones that tie into a long Grammys tradition. André 3000’s “New Blue Sun,” a trippy jazz LP by the Outkast rapper-turned-flautist, is nominated for album of the year, as is “Djesse Vol. 4” by Jacob Collier, the quirky English multi-instrumentalist recently seen playing piano behind Joni Mitchell during her latest comeback concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Both call to mind left-field album of the year wins by Jon Batiste in 2022 and Herbie Hancock in 2008 with jazz-oriented LPs whose commercial success was dwarfed by that of their competitors.

“I think voters respect the excellence and the musicianship and the craftsmanship that go into those records,” Mason said of the nods for Collier and André 3000. (On Spotify, the most-played track on “New Blue Sun” has 10 million streams, whereas Carpenter’s “Espresso” has 1.5 billion.) “You’re not excluded from consideration because you’re popular. But you’re also not excluded if you’re an artist that’s working in a genre other than one of the most popular genres. I’m gratified that there’s room for all different forms of music-making and creativity.”

Another surprising choice, perhaps, in record of the year: “Now and Then,” a let’s-call-it-new single by the Beatles constructed from archival material using machine-learning software developed by the filmmaker Peter Jackson for his 2021 docuseries “Get Back.” (The Beatles’ last Grammy moment came in 2014, when the band won the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.)

“To me, this is a cool example of how AI can function in our current environment,” said Mason, who took pains to clarify that a new academy rule allowing AI-assisted music to be submitted for Grammys consideration stipulates that the use of AI must enhance rather than replace the work of humans. In this case, he said, AI was “really like an editing tool” that enabled the Beatles to isolate a John Lennon vocal recording from the late ’70s “that was previously maybe unusable.”

In the best new artist category, Carpenter and Roan will vie against Khruangbin, a Texas psych-rock trio that’s been releasing albums since 2015, along with Benson Boone, Doechii, Raye, Teddy Swims and the ascendant country singer Shaboozey, who’s also up for song of the year with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which just logged its 16th week atop Billboard’s Hot 100. The remaining song of the year nominee is “Die With a Smile,” the Top 40 radio smash performed by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

Recordings eligible for the 67th Grammys had to be released between Sept. 16, 2023, and Aug. 30, 2024; more than 20,000 recordings were submitted, the academy said. The full ballot runs to 94 categories, including audio book, narration and storytelling recording, in which Barbra Streisand will go against George Clinton for possibly the first time in Grammys history.

Morgan Wallen, the hugely popular country singer blanked at the Grammys for several years following TMZ’s posting of a video in which he drunkenly used the N-word, received his first nominations — for country song and country duo/group performance — with “I Had Some Help,” his chart-topping duet with Post Malone. For country album, Malone’s “F-1 Trillion” is nominated along with “Cowboy Carter,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Deeper Well,” Chris Stapleton’s “Higher” and Lainey Wilson’s “Whirlwind.”

Beyoncé — who received no nominations for this month’s Country Music Assn. Awards, raising questions about Nashville’s inclusivity — picked up Grammy nods in country duo/group performance with “II Most Wanted,” a duet with Miley Cyrus, and country song with “Texas Hold ’Em.” Yet her nomination for album of the year with “Cowboy Carter” marks her fifth time in a category she’s never won. At February’s ceremony, Jay-Z publicly admonished the academy for bestowing dozens of Grammys on his wife while withholding the highest-profile award.

“Think about: The most Grammys — never won album of the year,” he said. “That doesn’t work.”

In the rap album category, the nominees are J. Cole’s “Might Delete Later,” the duo of Common and Pete Rock’s “The Auditorium, Vol. 1,” Doechii’s “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” Eminem’s “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)” and “We Don’t Trust You” by the duo of Future and Metro Boomin. LPs nominated for rock album are the Black Crowes’ “Happiness Bastards,” Fontaines D.C.’s “Romance,” Green Day’s “Saviors,” Idles’ “Tangk,” Pearl Jam’s “Dark Matter,” the Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds” and Jack White’s “No Name.”

Looking ahead to next year’s show — the first of two remaining in the academy’s half-century-long deal with CBS before the Grammys move to Disney’s ABC network in 2027 — Mason laughed when asked if the Beatles’ nomination might induce Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to perform together on the telecast.

“That would be amazing,” he said.

The son of jazz drummer Harvey Mason and a longtime musician himself, the CEO said he hadn’t yet turned his thoughts to how the Grammys ceremony might pay tribute to Quincy Jones, the 28-time Grammy-winning producer who died this week at age 91 — and whom Mason recalled watching in the studio as a kid when his dad brought him along to recording sessions.

“He was one of my biggest inspirations,” Mason said. “Anything I’m doing, I’m doing because I saw Quincy do it. So if it’s up to me, I’m gonna take like 45 minutes in the show, because he was that important.”

Appudo Ippudo Eppudo is Nikhil’s new film, which has been in the making for a long time. The romantic drama, directed by Sudheer Varma, was finally released today. Let’s see how it is.

Story :

Rishi(Nikhil Siddhartha) is a race car driver in London. One fine day, he meets Tara(Rukmini Vasanth) his girlfriend Tara and rekindles his love affair. Right when the time comes to take his relationship to the next level, yet another ex-girlfriend of Rishi, Tulasi(Divyansha Kaushik) makes her entry and changes things upside down. Not only does Tulasi disturb Rishi’s love life but brings in a crime angle related to a mafia don. Who is this mafia don? Did Rishi win Tara’s love? What is Tulasi’s actual identity? To know all this, watch the film on the big screen.

Plus Points :

The entire film is based in London and looks rich. The film’s second half is decent and has been narrated on an engaging note. But the lead-up to all this is very boring. More on this later. Nikhil plays a lover boy in the film and looks sharp. His image and personality suit such characters and gives his best in the film.

Rukmini Vasanth makes her Telugu debut with this film and she looks beautiful. Though there was nothing much to do for her, Rukmini made her presence felt. But it is Divyansha Kaushik who surprises us with her act. Not only does she look gorgeous, she gets a meaty role and is the most sensible and upfront character in the film. The twists that she brings in the film are quite good.

Viva Harsha is there throughout the film and ably supports Nikhil. Comedian Satya and Sudarshan narrate the film and their track is quite good. A few romantic moments featuring Rukmini Vasanth and Nikhil are good. The confusion-comedy related to Viva Harsh and John Vijay was handled well. Ajay is decent in his negative role.

Minus Points : 

One of the biggest drawbacks of the film is the outdated storyline. Such stories have been narrated in so many films to date and there is nothing new that the film showcases. Also, the narration is outdated and that is seen in the first half of the film. Despite just loving it for two hours, it feels lengthy

Sudheer Varma is known to make such crime stories in the best way possible but it is quite surprising to see how he chooses a simple subject and narrates it in a very outdated manner. Right from the love track to the crime angle, the film has so many issues.

There is no freshness and a crazy actress like Rukmini Vasanth looks clueless in the film. The main villain played by John Vijay is nothing sort of a joker in the film and fails to create a basic impact. Whenever he appears on screens, it’s a cringe-fest for the audience. The first half, romance, twists, everything is dull. Things make sense only in the last ten minutes but by then things are way too late.

Technical Aspects :

The production values of the film are top-notch. The city of London is showcased in a very good manner with a crisp camerawork. The editing could have been a lot better in the second half. The lyrics are okay and the production design is cool. The writing is very bad and not one aspect of the film makes an impact.

Coming to the director Sudheer Varma, he has disappointed us once again. It is quite surprising to see such a good talent make films like these. There is absolutely nothing going its way for this film and the so-called Sudheer Varma mark is missing. He narrates the film in a very outdated manner and this gives the audience a very dull approach to the film.

Verdict :

On the whole, Appudo Ippudo Eppudo is as confusing as its heading. The film has good names but the narration is outdated and boring, Nikhil saves the day with his sincere performance but the rest is ordinary making this film a below-par watch this weekend.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.25/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team